Marian Ruth Engel OC (née Passmore; May 24, 1933 – February 16, 1985) was a Canadian novelist and a founding member of the Writers' Union of Canada.
[1][2] Born May 24, 1933, in Toronto, Ontario, Engel lived the first years of her life in foster care before being adopted by Frederick Searle and Mary Elizabeth (Fletcher) Passmore.
[4] The family moved frequently and Engel spent time as a child in Port Arthur, Brantford, Galt, Hamilton and Sarnia.
[6] In 1960 Engel was awarded a Rotary Foundation Scholarship and spent a year studying French Literature at the Université d'Aix-Marseille in Aix-en Provence, France.
She was the first chair of the Writers' Union of Canada, established in 1973, with early meetings taking place in her Toronto home.
She argued that authors are expected "to live off that vapourous substance 'prestige'" and suggested that the uncompensated use of Canadian writers' work is a violation of copyright.
[15] The novel JOANNE: The Last Days of a Modern Marriage was originally commissioned as a radio-novel by CBC for the program This Country in the Morning.
[7] In addition to her novels, Engel wrote two children's books; Adventures of Moon Bay Towers (1974) and My name is not Odessa Yarker (1977).
Doubled identities were also commonly used to illustrate the challenge of choosing between the push and pull of daily life – namely traditional gender roles and the imagined possibility of the "other.
[19][22] Writers, including Gwendolyn MacEwen, read during a memorial service in her honour co-ordinated by Timothy Findley at The Music Gallery on February 28.
The award was prompted by Engel's friends and colleagues who established an endowment fund in her name to recognize significant literary achievement by female writers under the age of 45.